After The Load
by Dragonsrule18
Summary: Underfell Neutral Route. Flowey took a spear for Frisk, resulting in his death. Frisk was able to LOAD to bring him back, but just because a death is temporary does not mean it's not traumatizing. Curled together in a small cave away from the eyes of homicidal monsters, Frisk and Flowey have the talk they needed to.


After The Load

 **This is a story from my The Adventures Of Underfell Flowey And Frisk(Neutral Route) series on AO3, cross-posted here on FF.**

 **I've seen a lot of Underfell fics out there, but there's a depressing lack of fics focusing on the friendship of Underfell Flowey and Underfell Frisk and what both of them have gone through in the Underground so I wanted to rectify that here. I love these two. Though I was originally unsure about the Underfell AU, I love the fact that Flowey stays with Frisk and helps her through the Underground. I just plain love UF Flowey and his gentle personality, a little bit of golden light in an otherwise very dark AU, yet he often feels pushed aside in UF fics, which makes me sad. Few seem to think about what him and Underfell Frisk have to go through, dealing with homicidal monsters and being killed and watching each other die, over and over and over and over...**

 _ **...**_

Flowey took a sharp intake of breath as he snapped back into awareness yet again after yet another load. He shook off the remembered agony of the spear that had pierced his face and focused. He couldn't afford to lose concentration here. He felt arms quickly wrap around him in a tight hug and almost summoned bullets before his brain caught up with him and he realized it was Frisk, who had relief and tears in her eyes before forcing her face into a more neutral expression to keep from showing weakness to any homicidal monsters that might be watching, though he could feel her barely controlled trembling as she looked around for a place for them to hide. There was a small cave nearby and she carried him towards it, checking for traps or other monsters before going inside it with him.

She barely had enough room to stand in it, but it was deep enough to shield them from prying eyes. Now that they couldn't be seen, she clung to him, crying as she checked him for wounds, fingers running gently over the old scars and tears on his petals, careful not to hurt him. She was always careful, always gentle, a rare creature of tenderness trapped in this world.

"I'm okay, Frisk."

"Flowey, you jumped in front of a damn spear for me! You died!" she sobbed, hugging him like she was afraid he would disappear. "I almost lost you..."

Flowey let her and gave the best hug he could back with his leaf "hands." "You didn't lose me. You brought me back. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"It's not fine!" she snapped. Flowey flinched and she softened her tone. "You died, Flowey. You died and I watched you die and I couldn't do anything to stop it in time...Why'd you have to jump in front of me like that? I can't die, so why'd you have to risk yourself?"

"Because I care about you! Do you think I don't hate seeing you get hurt or die?! And how many damn times have you blocked an attack to protect me, or been attacked because you were warning me and lost concentration? It works both ways, Frisk! You're my friend too and I know you can feel yourself dying..." And part of him was scared Frisk's loads would run out or that she would stay dead. "And you KNOW we don't know how many loads you could have, so why the hell did you feel the need to waste one on me?! What if the next time you die you can't come back?! You've got to stop being so damn stupid, Frisk! Stop risking yourself for me!" he hissed, though he was still careful to keep his voice low so monsters outside couldn't hear them. He glared at her, both out of anger and grief.

She glared back at him, no less stubborn than he was. "You're my best friend, Flowey! There's no way I'm letting you die! I care about you too damn much for that and you've been through enough shit with both the deaths you've had at the hands of those assholes before I even came here and then dealing with them again trying to protect me! I don't care if I only have a limited amount of loads to use; I'm still saving you if something happens to your stupid ass! You mean too much to me for me to just let you die!"

"Now you listen to me! You're going to stop thinking like that and doing this reckless crap before I make you, you idiot! I'm not losing another person I care about!" He was shaking even harder and he didn't notice the hot tears in his eyes until his vision began to blur. "Just stop it, Frisk...Please..." Each and every time she had died and he hadn't been able to save her flashed through his mind, as well as the image of a sickly, dying Chara stolen from him by an illness he couldn't protect them from.

Frisk's eyes softened, though he couldn't see it through his tears. She pulled him close. He collapsed against her, all anger gone, taken away by the aching grief. He was sobbing now, unable to stop it, burying his face against her neck.

No matter how hard he tried to be tough, both as Asriel and as Flowey, no matter whether his soul was whole or just a fragment, he always was a crybaby, the weakling son of the fearsome warrior king Asgore, the prince who felt too much.

Loved too much.

He cried for Chara, lost to him forever, for his mother, only an insane shell of herself in the ruins, for Frisk, who could be stolen from him at any time, for everything this hellhole had taken away and could take away.

Frisk held him close through all this, stroking his scarred petals in that gentle way she always had, whispering comforting words through her own tears. He soaked up the touch of the only person who had showed him kindness since he had taken on this form. His best friend. The one who stood by him as much as he stood by her. The last light surviving in the darkness of this world. The one he would have(and had) died for. The one who had died for him.

He raised his tear filled eyes to look into hers, saw the love and affection her own warm brown eyes held. The look he knew he was mirroring.

And he knew. They both did.

He knew she would never stop protecting him, just as she knew he would never stop protecting her. No matter how reckless they thought the other was being, no matter how much they would argue about it, they understood in a way. They knew they would do the same. Their bond, started in the ruins with some kind words, an act of mercy, and a helping hand, made stronger through conflict, teamwork, trust, and sacrifice, had become unbreakable. Nothing in them would allow them to let the other die when they could do something to save them. They were both too stubborn.

They loved each other too much.

For a while, they simply held onto each other like lifelines, soaking up the comfort, the emotions they couldn't share while wandering the Underground.

"It's hard. It's so hard." Frisk whispered through her tears. "But we can do this. I'll get you out of here. I promise I'll get you out of here."

Flowey nodded once he could speak without breaking into tears again. "We've got each other and everything's going to be okay." he choked out. "No matter how hard it gets, I'll be right by your side. We'll make it to the surface. Together."

"Together." she agreed in a soft whisper. They rested together for a few more minutes, and then she picked him up, holding him close to her, and checked to make sure her knife was where she could get it if she needed to. They both took a deep breath, looked to one another, and they left the cave, filled with determination.

Let the monsters try to stop them if they dared.

They would do whatever it took to protect one another.

...

 **Please let me know what you think!**


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